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Document A: Newark Anniversary Guide (Excerpt)

In 1916, Newark celebrated the 250th anniversary of its founding. For the

occasion, the Newark Sales and Advertising Company published 250,000 copies

of the Official Guide and Manual of the Anniversary Celebration. The guide

included various articles, pictures, and statistics about the city. Below are

excerpts from it.

[Newark] has now most of the adornment of a great city. Its streets are well

paved and well sewered. Its schools greatly enlarged and improved, are among

the best. Its beautiful churches are sufficient to give attractive seats to all who

would attend. Its superb water supply is not surpassed in quality. It has a public

service in light and transportation that is unexcelled. Its public buildings are

important and beautiful and if to some its debt may seem small for so great a city,

it may be said with confidence that the projects now in sight may be relied upon

to remove that cause for criticism. In the variety and extent of its industries it is

among the first, and its enterprising salesmen make its wares known in every

hamlet throughout the land.

Newark, thank fortune, is still more or less an old-fashioned city with old-

fashioned ways. It has no idle rich. It looks askance at extravagant living. It

sneers at ostentation. It goes to church – not as much as it should, but it

remembers that it was founded by religious men for religious reasons. And it

stands for the moralities in its private and public life. . . .

Newark has 252 distinct lines of industry; fifty lines each turning out values from

one to thirty million dollars annually. Newark as a manufacturing center ranks

ahead of thirty states in the aggregate value of its manufactured products.

Newark per capita to its population leads in the variety of its manufactures. . . .

Wages paid employees average $747 yearly.

Source: Newark Sales and Advertising Co., Official Guide and Manual of the

250

th

Anniversary Celebration of the Founding of Newark, New Jersey, Newark,

NJ: 1916

Vocabulary

adornment: decoration or enhancement

enterprising: ambitious

hamlet: village

askance: with suspicion or disapproval

ostentation: a display of wealth that is

intended to attract attention or envy

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Document B: New York Times (Excerpt)

Great Ship Plant Needs Steel Men. Newark Yards Ready to Employ 12,000

Workers to Turn out Vessels for War Use. Will Build 200 Boats.

War Committee Makes Appeal for Craftsmen – First Keel Plate Will Be

Laid Dec. 1.

Steel workers are wanted badly by the United States Emergency Fleet

Corporation in Newark, N.J., one of the great war plants that is rising

magic-like out of the meadows along Newark Bay to supply the

Government’s need for cargo vessels as one means of successful

prosecution of the war.

The United States Shipping Board and the Submarine Boat Corporation are

co-operating to spread among the workers news of the great need for them

to flock to the metropolitan district to take part in the task of turning out the

standardized steel ships in such quantities that Germany’s submarine war

shall be balked.

A special War Committee, which is to aid the great ship plants to get the

men needed, has issued posters picturing a steel vessel in process of

construction on the ways, and proclaiming:

“If you can use tools you are wanted: your country needs ships and men to

build them. Armies, ammunition and supplies are useless in this country

without ships to transport them. Go to the nearest shipyard and offer your

services. You can thus help to win the war and make the world safe for

democracy.”

The Newark yards are to employ 12,000 men.

Source: New York Times, October 22, 1917.

Vocabulary

keel: the structure that runs along the

centerline at the bottom of a ship

prosecution: continuation and

completion

balked: stopped

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Document C: Cotton Pickers in Northern Counties (Excerpt)

Helen Pendleton was a white woman who worked for a charity in Georgia before

becoming a supervisor for the Bureau of Charities in Newark. The passage below

is from her article “Cotton Pickers in Northern Counties,” in which she described

the challenges faced by African-American migrants in Newark. Survey magazine,

a leading social work journal, published the article.

Early last spring, when a marked shortage of labor was felt, northern industries

turned to the South and began to import Negroes by the thousand. Railroads and

industrial plants furnished transportation and offered undreamed-of wages to the

simple farm hands from the cotton fields of Georgia and Alabama. . . .

At first the railroad and other companies furnished the transportation, sending

agents all through the South, who painted in glowing terms . . . the high wages

and advantages of the North. But apparently that was not long necessary. The

news spread like wildfire. . . . The Negroes sold their simple belongings, and, in

some instances, valuable land and property, and flocked to the northern cities,

even though they had no objective work in sight. And they are still coming.

Enough money has been saved from their unprecedented wages to send for

wives and children. Almost every day one may see in the Pennsylvania station

groups of Negro women sitting patiently, surrounded by bundles and babies and

shivering in cotton garments, waiting for night to come, which will bring the men

to meet them. . . .

The industries of New Jersey went after these laborers because they needed

them in their business. But, although the Negro is warmly welcomed as a laborer,

it is increasingly apparent that as a Negro he is unwelcome. . . .

Soon after the migration began to be noticeable, suddenly, mysteriously, almost

in a night, the signs To Let and For Rent in the part of the city where small

houses and flats were available were changed to For Sale. . . . These humble

newcomers, therefore, have been forced into finding lodgings in basements and

in the worst parts of our city. . . .

Source: Helen B. Pendleton, “Cotton Pickers in Northern Counties,” Survey,

February 1917.

Vocabulary

unprecedented: new and unmatched

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Document D: Atlanta Constitution (Excerpt)

In the article below, an unidentified columnist describes the migration of African

Americans. The article appeared in The Atlanta Constitution, which was one of

the largest newspapers in Georgia at the time.

Notwithstanding there is some excuse, perhaps, for negro migration growing

out of the fears which have been engendered by the actions of mobs, and the

false stories of threats which emigration agents have fed them, the southern

negro who is lured by their persuasion usually fares worse in the end, if he does

not lose his life into the bargain.

It is a pitiful story that comes from Newark, N.J. . . . In a recent church meeting

on the subject, reported in the Newark Evening News, Rev. O.M. Bonfield, pastor

of a negro congregation is quoted as saying that –

Many of the newcomers are driven north by persecution in southern states

as well as by the lure of high wages in the munitions factories. . . . These

people in many instances need proper clothing to enable them to withstand

the rigors of this climate; they need decent housing facilities. . . .

The northern idea of persecution in the south is, of course, a very exaggerated

one; but we have to admit that in the work of the mob, at least, it has some

foundation. It is a matter of common knowledge, however, that the honest and

industrious negro gets along better and gets more out of life here in the south

than he can anywhere else in the country. . . .

The emigrants, and it is stated there are some 12,000 of them in and around

Newark alone, working chiefly in the munitions factories, are in actual need of

housing and clothing, which, with all the promise of big wages, they have not

been able to procure. Nor is that the whole story. Many of them are dying . . . due

to the unhealthy surroundings in which they are compelled to live. . . .

Source: Atlanta Constitution, “Penalties of Migration,” December 14, 1916.

Vocabulary

notwithstanding: although

engendered: caused

lure: to tempt someone to go

somewhere, often by offering a reward

munitions: military weapons

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Document E: Annie Rose Johnston Interview (Excerpt)

In the 1990s, the Krueger-Scott Cultural Center of Newark conducted over

100 interviews with African Americans who migrated to Newark between

1910 and 1970. These oral histories focus on why people migrated to

Newark and on their experiences once they arrived in the city. Below is an

excerpt from an interview with Annie Rose Johnston.

Johnston: I was born in Bert County, Georgia. . . . It was a farm. We were

13 in all. . . . We came north in 1922. Daddy said he wanted his children to

get more than he was able to get. He gave up farming and came up to

Newark, my mother and dad. And she did domestic work and some

seamstress work.

Interviewer: Why did they come to Newark? Better opportunities or what?

Johnston: Daddy thought he could get work easier in Newark. He didn’t

want to farm anymore.

Interviewer: Did your family know anybody in Newark? Or did you just take

a chance? Did you have any relatives here?

Johnston: . . . No relatives. We were on our own. . . . It was a tough year.

My mother was sick in one room with pneumonia. My brother was sick in

the other room with pneumonia. And Daddy was a real brick, he stayed up

night and day. He made sure they got their medicine. The lady down the

hall had a phone, and he call my sister and tell her give them different

medications.

Source: Interview with Annie Rose Johnston, November 13, 1995.

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Guiding Questions

Document A: Newark Anniversary Guide

1) (Sourcing) When was this document written? What was its purpose?

2) (Close Reading) How does this document describe Newark?

Document B: New York Times

1) (Sourcing) What kind of document is this? When was it written?

2) (Contextualization) What major historical event was happening when this article

was written? How might this historical context have shaped the content of the

document?

3) (Close Reading) What is the central problem described in this article? According

to the article, how are businesses and government addressing the problem?

Document C: Pendleton

1) (Sourcing) When was this document written? What might have been the author’s

purpose in writing this article?

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2) (Close Reading) According to Pendleton, why were African Americans migrating

to Newark?

3) (Corroboration) How do the reasons Pendleton provides for African American

migration to Newark compare to the New York Times article?

4) (Corroboration) How do Pendleton’s descriptions of the conditions that African

Americans faced when they arrived in Newark compare to the Newark

Anniversary Guide’s description of Newark?

Document D: Atlanta Constitution

1) (Sourcing) When and where was this newspaper article published? How might

this have influenced how the article described the migration of African Americans

to Newark?

2) (Close Reading and Contextualization) What does the article mean when it states

that migration was caused, in part, by “the actions of mobs”?

3) (Close Reading) According to this article, what were the consequences of the

migration of African Americans to Newark? What evidence does it offer to

support its claims?

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Document E: Annie Rose Johnston Interview

1) (Sourcing) What kind of document is this? When was it created?

2) (Corroboration) How do Annie Rose Johnston’s experiences compare to the

experiences of migrants described by Rev. Bonfield in Document D?

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Why did African Americans migrate to Newark at the beginning of the 20

th

century?

Document

Evidence

What are two pieces of evidence

from this document that help to

explain why African Americans

migrated to Newark?

(Cite specific details or passages

from the documents).

Explanation

How does each piece of evidence

help to explain why African

Americans migrated to Newark at the

beginning of the 20

th

century?

Evaluating Evidence

What is one reason why this might

be a credible source for

understanding why African

Americans migrated to Newark?

What is one reason why this

document might not be credible?

Document A:

Anniversary

Guide

Evidence #1:

Evidence #2:

Evidence #1:

Evidence #2:

Credible:

Not credible:

Document B:

New York

Times

Evidence #1:

Evidence #2:

Evidence #1:

Evidence #2:

Credible:

Not credible:

STANFORD HISTORY EDUCATION GROUP sheg.stanford.edu

Why did African Americans migrate to Newark at the beginning of the 20

th

century?

Document

Evidence

What are two pieces of evidence

from this document that help to

explain why African Americans

migrated to Newark?

(Cite specific details or passages

from the documents).

Explanation

How does each piece of evidence

help to explain why African

Americans migrated to Newark at the

beginning of the 20

th

century?

Evaluating Evidence

What is one reason why this might

be a credible source for

understanding why African

Americans migrated to Newark?

What is one reason why this

document might not be credible?

Document C:

Pendleton

Evidence #1:

Evidence #2:

Evidence #1:

Evidence #2:

Credible:

Not credible:

Document D:

Atlanta

Constitution

Evidence #1:

Evidence #2:

Evidence #1:

Evidence #2:

Credible:

Not credible:

STANFORD HISTORY EDUCATION GROUP sheg.stanford.edu

Document

Evidence

What are two pieces of evidence

from this document that help to

explain why African Americans

migrated to Newark?

(Cite specific details or passages

from the documents).

Explanation

How does each piece of evidence

help to explain why African

Americans migrated to Newark at the

beginning of the 20

th

century?

Evaluating Evidence

What is one reason why this might

be a credible source for

understanding why African

Americans migrated to Newark?

What is one reason why this

document might not be credible?

Document E:

Annie Rose

Johnston

Interview

Evidence #1:

Evidence #2:

Evidence #1:

Evidence #2:

Credible:

Not credible:

STANFORD HISTORY EDUCATION GROUP sheg.stanford.edu

Final Question

Why did African Americans migrate to Newark at the beginning of the 20

th

century? Use evidence from at least three of the documents in your

response.

____________________________________________________________

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